Welcome to Hack the Herd Fall 2025, a collaboration between AI in the Liberal Arts, the Office of Sustainability, Ideas 2 Innovation, and the CS clubs at Amherst College. This event embodies a commitment to fostering innovation and entrepreneurship, and designing sustainable solutions.

This hackathon brings together the brightest minds on our campus to collaborate, ideate, and create solutions that will drive positive change in the realm of sustainability through emerging AI technologies.

Achieving sustainability is perhaps the defining idea of our era. The consequences of not achieving it are catastrophic as humanity faces a series of complex, interconnected challenges, including:

• Climate change
• Racial and socioeconomic inequities
• Resource depletion and degradation
• Biodiversity loss
• Waste

We are at a pivotal crossroads, and the urgency to act grows with each moment if we are to set ourselves on a sustainable path forward. Colleges and universities have a major role to play in leveraging their partnerships to help effectively address these challenges.

The liberal arts in particular offer a powerful framework that can accommodate:

• Complexity and interconnected systems
• Long time frames
• Interdisciplinary collaboration
• Multiple scales, from local to global

This year’s hackathon centers on campus sustainability. AI has the power to significantly improve and expedite sustainability efforts. Opportunities include:

• Reducing waste, energy demand, and water use
• Creating more sustainable operations, designs, and procurement
• Allowing for equitable access and improved wellbeing

Your challenge: Develop an innovative solution that contributes to the college’s sustainability pathway, using AI during the design and/or implementation process.

Participation is open to everyone — whether or not you’re a programmer or CS major. If you have an interest in sustainability or technology, we encourage you to join, learn, build, and share your projects! Here is the schedule: 

• 11:00 AM – Sign In / Lunch
• 12:00–12:15 PM – Keynote Speaker
• 12:15 PM – Hackathon Begins
• 12:30–1:30 PM – Coaches Available (in person, continues on Discord after)
• 12:15 PM onward – Hacking and Dinner in Val

• 10:00 AM – Devpost Submission Due
• 10:00–11:00 AM – Judges Review Submissions
• 11:00–12:00 PM – Pitches (approx. 3 minutes each)
• 11:45 AM – Lunch Delivery (Fresh Side)
• 12:00–1:00 PM – Lunch Break & Expo-Style Judging
• 1:00–1:30 PM – Debrief and Final Deliberations Panel
• 1:30 PM – Awards Ceremony
• 2:00 PM – Closing Remarks

• Theme Alignment: AI for Sustainability
  Did the project creatively and meaningfully address sustainability through AI? Was the project purpose-driven? Does it showcase how AI can drive sustainable change?
• Technical Innovation
  How technically impressive was the hack? Was the technical problem the team tackled difficult? Did it use a particularly clever technique or did it use many different components? Did the technology involved make you go "Wow"?
• Design & User Experience
  Did the team thoughtfully design the solution for usability and impact? For a website, this might be about how beautiful the CSS or graphics are. Is it polished? Could someone actually use this?
• Functionality & Completion
  Does the solution work as intended? Can it be used/tested now? How much did the team get done?
• Ambition & Learning
  Did the team challenge themselves and grow through the process? Did they go beyond what they already knew? Were they bold in their approach?